Corvidia Therapeutics Raises $26M in a Series A Financing, Led by Sofinnova Partners and Apple Tree Partners

BOSTON, Feb. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Corvidia Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of precision cardiovascular therapies, announced today that it has raised $26 million in a Series A financing, co-led by seed-investor Sofinnova Partners, and Apple Tree Partners.

Concurrent with the financing, Corvidia has licensed a clinical stage compound from AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize as its lead therapeutic (COR-001). Funds from the Series A financing will be used to progress COR-001 into Phase I/II clinical trials during 2016, as well as to advance the company's preclinical pipeline.

Corvidia was co-founded by serial entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Davidson, M.D. Dr. Davidson, a recognized expert in the field of cardiology, previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Sofinnova-backed Omthera Pharmaceuticals, and was instrumental in the successful acquisition of that company by AstraZeneca in 2013 for $443 million. Joining Dr. Davidson at Corvidia are Co-founders Rahul Kakkar M.D. and Matt Devalaraja, Ph.D., both of whom previously worked in AstraZeneca's Emerging Innovations Unit, where they developed the science behind genome-guided cardiovascular therapies. Ram Aiyar Ph.D., MBA, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health and BioHealth Innovation, completes Corvidia's founding team.

Commenting on today's news, Dr. Davidson stated, "Our ability to complete this significant Series A financing with such high-quality investors is a testament to the promise of our technology and expertise of our management team, positioning Corvidia as a leader in the field of precision medicine as applied to cardiovascular diseases. With these funds, we aim to drive each of our assets through clinical trials and validate our precision medicine approach."

Graziano Seghezzi, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, and Corvidia's board member commented, "Given Omthera's success, we were strongly in favor of teaming up once again with Dr. Davidson. The seed funding that Sofinnova Partners provided allowed for Corvidia's inception, for the pipeline crafting and for the eventual structuring of the Series A. We are pleased to continue to support Corvidia and this latest financing represents a major step for the future advancement of novel, cardiovascular therapeutics."

Seth Harrison, M.D., Managing Partner of Apple Tree Partners, noted, "In our years of start-up investing we have not seen a better team than the group that Michael Davidson has assembled from AstraZeneca and the NIH. We are thrilled to be able to support Corvidia with our capital resources and company building experience, and look forward to working with Sofinnova Partners, AstraZeneca, and management to create the first great precision cardiovascular medicine company."

COR-001, a monoclonal antibody initially developed by MedImmune, AstraZeneca's global biologics research and development arm, was previously in a Phase 1 study for a different indication. It was repurposed by AstraZeneca's Emerging Innovations Unit, Scientific Partnering and Alliances (SP&A), prior to licensing to Corvidia. "This is another example of the strong entrepreneurial culture within AstraZeneca, where we push the boundaries of science to explore new therapeutic uses for our compounds. We will continue to divest or out-license assets where we believe it will help accelerate the development of new medicines." said Kumar Srinivasan, Vice President, SP&A, Innovative Medicines Unit, AstraZeneca.

In conjunction with the financing, Seth Harrison and Adrien Lemoine, Executive Director, Corporate Development for AstraZeneca, will join Graziano Seghezzi and Michael Davidson on Corvidia's Board of Directors.

About Sofinnova Partners Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, the firm brings together 12 highly experienced investment professionals from all over Europe, the US and China. The firm focuses on paradigm shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners seeks to invest as a founding and lead investor in start-ups and corporate spin-offs, and has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 40 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €1.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: www.sofinnova.fr

About Apple Tree PartnersApple Tree Partners (ATP) is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services. Founded in 1999, with a history of well-known successes, ATP closed its current capital pool of $1.5 billion in 2012 and is actively funding healthcare innovation. ATP starts companies, or invests in existing companies, with commitments as high as $250 million. The firm is headquartered in New York City, with satellite offices in Princeton, NJ, Cambridge, MA, and Los Altos, CA. For more information, please visit: www.appletreepartners.com

About Corvidia TherapeuticsBased in Boston, MA, Corvidia is a biotechnology company pioneering the next generation of cardiovascular therapies. Leveraging functional genomics, the company's founding team has decoded previously unrecognized genetic susceptibilities within general cardiovascular populations. Corvidia's pipeline programs precisely identify patients with unique sensitivity to specific biologic pathways, potentially allowing for the rapid development of therapies targeting those pathways. For more information, please visit: www.corvidiatx.com